DISINFO: Poland’s post-WWII western lands were a gift from Stalin
SUMMARY
The lands which today comprise the western part of Poland were a gift from Stalin. Polish officials have dismissed this fact as a "whitewashing Stalin, historical revisionism, an assault on historical truth." But in truth this is exactly what it was - a gift.
RESPONSE
This claim, aired on a top Russian propaganda outlet and reproducing Putin's remarks, is an attempt to belittle the modern Polish state and reduce Poland's territory to a play among bigger neighbours or great powers. It is manipulative and intimidating in its call to remove agency from Warzaw and the Polish people and demand eternal thankfulness from Poland towards Stalin.
Further, it seeks to reduce the complex process of the Yalta-Potsdam system and the results WWII to the will only of Stalin, which is a misrepresention of history.
The Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact of August 1939, witnessed and endorsed by Stalin, contained a secret supplementary protocol that resulted in a coordinated Nazi-Soviet campaign against Poland and determined the carving up of Eastern Europe between the USSR and the Third Reich.
The decision to pass Silesia, part of East Prussia and other former German territories to the Polish state was made by the USA, the UK and the USSR at the Yalta Conference in February 1945 and the Potsdam Conference in July-August 1945.
After WWII: The Red Army liberated Poland from Nazi occupation, but it didn’t mean liberty for this country as the USSR kept Poland under its control for 48 years, bringing decades of communist oppression. According to Polish historians and views of the predominant part of Polish society, in 1944-1945, the USSR occupied Poland, establishing the undemocratic and repressive Communist Poland.
Poland was under de facto Soviet military occupation until 1989, and it was not until 1993 that Russian troops completely withdrew from the country. Read more about the Communist crimes in Poland here.
Read similar messages such as: Stalin decided to establish the independent Polish state; It is thanks to Russia that Poland exists today as a country and Warsaw would not have been rebuilt without the decision of Stalin.